Reunification

A political union is a type of state which is composed of or created out of smaller states. The process is called unification. Unifications of states that used to be together and are reuniting is referred to as reunification. Unlike a personal union, the individual states share a central government and the union is recognized internationally as a single political entity. A political union may also be called a legislative union or state union.

A union may be effected in a number of forms, broadly categorized as:

• Incorporating union
• Incorporating annexation
• Federal (or confederal) union
• Federative annexation
• Mixed unions.

Incorporating union

In an incorporating union a new state is created, the former states being entirely dissolved into the new state (albeit that some aspects may be preserved; see below "Preservation of interests").

Examples of incorporating union

• South Africa (1910)^[1]
• Spain (process from 1037 to 1479) — however the realms of the Crown of Aragon were formally separate from the Crown of Castile were not administratively unified with Castile until 1716 and 1833 respectively.
• Yemen (1990)

Preservation of interests

Nevertheless a full incorporating union may preserve the (laws and institutions of the former states, as happened in the creating of the United Kingdom. This may be simply a matter of practice or to comply with a guarantee given in the terms of the union. For example:

• In the annexation of Brittany to France in 1532 (Union of Brittany and France), a guarantee was given as to the continuance of laws and of the Estates of Brittany (a guarantee revoked in 1789 at the French Revolution).
• The Treaty of Union for creating the united Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707 contained a guarantee of the continuance of the civil laws and the existing courts in Scotland^[2] (a continuing guarantee).
• In the Union creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801, no such guarantee was given for the laws and courts of Ireland, though they were continued as a matter of practice.
• Tyrol was guaranteed that its Freischütz companies would not be posted to fight outside Tyrol without their consent (a guarantee revoked by the Austrian republic).

Incorporating annexation

In an incorporating annexation a state or states is united to and dissolved in an existing state, whose legal existence continues.

Annexation may be voluntary or, which is more frequent, by conquest .

Examples of incorporating annexation

• England formally annexed Wales under the two Laws in Wales Acts of 1535 and 1542
• Prussia/Germany (1864, 1866 and 1870–71)
• Italian unification (1860–1861)
• India with (Jammu and Kashmir in 1957)
• Serbia (with Montenegro) (1918)

Federal or confederal union

In a federal or confederal union the states continue in existence but place themselves under a new federal authority. The federal state alone will be the state in international law though the federated states retain an existence in domestic law.

Examples of federal or confederal union

• Australia (1901)
• Cameroon (1961–1970)
• Canada (1867)
• German Empire (1871–1919)
• India (1950)
• West Pakistan and East Pakistan (1947-1971)
• Polish–Lithuanian union (1569–1791)
• Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2006)
• Switzerland (confederation from 1291)
• Tanzania (1964)
• The United Arab Emirates (1971)
• Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (1922–1991)
• The United States of America (in confederal union under the Articles of Confederation, beginning in 1781 and becoming a federal union under the United States Constitution in 1788)

Federal or confederal annexation

If a state becomes a federated unit of another existing state, the former continuing its legal existence, then that is a federal annexation. The new federated state thus ceases to be a state in international law but retains its legal existence in domestic law, subsidiary to the federal authority.

Examples of federal annexation

• British Columbia with Canada (1871)
• Eritrea with Ethiopia (1951 to 1962)
• Geneva with Switzerland (1815)
• Newfoundland with Canada (1949)
• Prince Edward Island with Canada (1873)
• Texas with the United States of America (1846)

(Arguably Hawaii with the United States of America is an example, but Hawaii was first annexed without statehood in 1898.)

Mixed unions

The unification of Italy involved a mixture of unions. The kingdom consolidated around the Kingdom of Sardinia. Several states voluntarily united with Sardinia to create the Kingdom of Italy. Others, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and the Papal States, were conquered and annexed.

The unification of Germany was ultimately a confederal union, but it began in earnest by Prussia's annexation of numerous petty states in 1866.

Historical unions

• Bulgarian unification in 1885, after the 1396 Ottoman conquest.
• Ukrainian unification in 1919
• Chinese reunification (1928) or "Northeast Flag Replacement" proclaimed victory of Guangzhou/Nanjing government over Beiyang government after the 1912 division.
• German reunification in 1990, divided since the 1949 division decided at the Potsdam Conference in August 1945.
  • German unification in 1866–71, divided since 9th century by the formation of the Holy Roman Empire and the division of Eastern Francia
  • Anschluss (1938 Nazi reunification of "Lesser Germany" and Austria into "Greater Germany")
• Italian unification 1815–71, divided since the 6th century Ostrogoths.
• Polish reunification in 1918–22, divided since 24 October 1795.
• Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War in 1976, divided since 1954.
• Yemenite reunification in 1990, divided since the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918 and the creation of the Aden Protectorate by the United Kingdom in 1838
• Denmark and the northern part of Southern Jutland in 1920. See Schleswig Plebiscites.

Unification movements

At various times, various nationalist and irredentist movements promoted ideas of restoration or unification in various places.

Reunification Movement	Divided since	Areas affected (at maximum extent)
Commonwealth Union	Earliest division in 1931	Antigua and Barbuda  Australia  The Bahamas  Barbados  Belize  Canada  Grenada  Jamaica  New Zealand  Papua New Guinea  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Lucia  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  Solomon Islands  Tuvalu  United Kingdom
United States of Africa	Never united	Africa
Greater Afghanistan	1893	Afghanistan part of  Pakistan
Greater Serbia	1995	Serbia  Macedonia  Montenegro  Croatia  Bosnia  Serbian Krajina  Republika Srpska
Greater Syria	Neo-Babylonian Empire "626 BC–539 BC"	Syria  Lebanon  Iraq  Jordan  Northern Cyprus  Kuwait  Palestine  Israel  Cyprus part of  Saudi Arabia part of  Turkey part of  Iran part of  Egypt
Greater Croatia	1945	Croatia  Bosnia  Serbia part of  Montenegro
Greater Bulgaria	1918	Bulgaria  Macedonia part of  Serbia part of  Greece
Greater Albania	1945	Albania  Montenegro (Ulcinj, Plav, Rožaje and parts of Bar, Podgorica and Berane municipalities)  Serbia (Tutin and part of Bujanovac)  Kosovo (Whole territory except Northen and Southeastern parts)  Greece (Epirus)  Macedonia (Western parts of Polog and Southwestern regions, including Resen area)
Balkan Federation	Never united	Serbia  Macedonia  Albania  Croatia  Montenegro  Slovenia  Bosnia  Bulgaria  Greece  Romania
Russian Empire	1917	Russia  Ukraine  Belarus  Poland  Latvia  Lithuania  Finland  Estonia  Georgia  Armenia  Azerbaijan  Kazakhstan  Turkmenistan  Uzbekistan  Tajikistan  Moldova  Kyrgyzstan
Arab Union	1258	Algeria  Bahrain  Comoros  Djibouti  Egypt  Iraq  Jordan  Kuwait  Lebanon  Palestine  Libya  Mauritania  Morocco  Oman  Qatar  Saudi Arabia  Somalia  Sudan  Syria  Tunisia  United Arab Emirates  Yemen
Southeast Asian Union	Never united	Brunei  Burma  Cambodia  East Timor  Indonesia  Laos  Malaysia  Philippines  Singapore  Thailand  Vietnam
Australia and New Zealand	c. 1942	Australia  New Zealand
Greater Netherlands	1839	Belgium  Luxembourg  Netherlands
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland	1922	United Kingdom  Republic of Ireland
Central American Union	1838	Belize  Costa Rica  Dominican Republic  El Salvador  Guatemala  Honduras  Nicaragua  Panama
Central Asian Union	1991	Kazakhstan  Kyrgyzstan  Uzbekistan  Tajikistan  Turkmenistan
Greater China	1895, 1911, 1949	People's Republic of China  Republic of China  Mongolia part of  Russia
Cyprus	1974	Cyprus  Northern Cyprus  Akrotiri and Dhekelia (dependency of United Kingdom)
Czechoslovakia	1992	Czech Republic  Slovakia
East African Federation	Never united Rwanda and Burundi (1962); Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania (1919)	Burundi  Kenya  Rwanda  South Sudan  Tanzania  Uganda
United States of Europe	Never united Carolingian Empire (888); Roman Empire (395)	Austria  Belgium  Bulgaria  Cyprus  Czech Republic  Denmark  Estonia  Finland  France  Germany  Greece  Hungary  Ireland  Italy  Latvia  Lithuania  Luxembourg  Malta  Netherlands  Poland  Portugal  Romania  Slovakia  Slovenia  Spain  Sweden  United Kingdom
Greater Finland	1940–1944	Finland part of  Russia
North American Union	1776	Canada  Mexico  United States
Greek reunification	1202	Greece  Cyprus  Turkey (Eastern Thrace,Western and Northwestern Asia Minor, Pontus, Cappadocia)  Bulgaria (Eastern Rumelia)  Albania (Northern Epirus including northern areas of Apollonia (Illyria), Vlorë and Berat)  Republic of Macedonia (Monastiri area including the northern city of Ohrid and area around Strumica and Gevgelija)
Greater Hungary	1920, 1945	Hungary  Austria (Burgenland)  Croatia  Poland (parts of Tatra County)  Romania (Transylvania)  Serbia (Vojvodina)  Slovakia  Slovenia (Prekmurje)  Ukraine (Zakarpattia Oblast)
Iberian Federation	1580–1640	Andorra  Portugal  Spain  Gibraltar (dependency of United Kingdom)
Undivided India	1947	India  Bangladesh  Pakistan(excluding Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa)  Burma  Sri Lanka  Maldives
United Ireland	1922	Republic of Ireland Northern Ireland (part of United Kingdom)
Korean reunification	1945	Democratic People's Republic of Korea  Republic of Korea
Colombia	1640	Antigua and Barbuda  Argentina  Bahamas  Barbados  Belize  Bolivia  Brazil  Chile  Colombia  Costa Rica  Cuba  Dominica  Dominican Republic  Ecuador  El Salvador  Grenada  Guatemala  Guyana  Haiti  Honduras  Jamaica  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Mexico  Nicaragua  Panama  Paraguay  Peru  Saint Lucia  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  Suriname  Trinidad and Tobago  Uruguay  Venezuela
Malaysia	1965	Singapore  Malaysia
Greater Romania	1944	Moldova  Romania
Union State	1991	Belarus  Russia
Samoa	1900	Samoa  American Samoa
Nordic Federation	1523	Denmark  Sweden  Norway  Iceland  Finland
Transcaucasus	1936	Armenia  Azerbaijan  Georgia
West Indies Federation	1962	Anguilla  Antigua and Barbuda  Barbados  Cayman Islands  Dominica  Grenada  Jamaica  Montserrat  Saint Kitts and Nevis  Saint Lucia  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines  Trinidad and Tobago  Turks and Caicos Islands
Yugoslavia	1992	Bosnia and Herzegovina  Croatia  Macedonia  Montenegro  Serbia  Slovenia
United Armenia	1639, 1828	Armenia  Turkey (Western Armenia)  Azerbaijan (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Northern Artsakh and Nakhichevan)  Georgia(Javakhk)
United Israel	1948	Israel  Palestine

Supranational and continental unions

In addition to regional movements, supranational organizations that promote progressive integration between its members gained force in the end of the 20th century. Most of these organization are inspired on the European Union and, although most of the states are reluctant with it, the concept of unionism is often present.

Current supranational unions:

• African Union (AU)
• European Union (EU)
• Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)

Proposed supranational unions:

• Arab Union, from Arab League
• Central Asian Union
• Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, from Rio Group and CARICOM
• North American Union, from North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
• Pacific Union, from Pacific Islands Forum

Organizations that plan to evolve into supranational unions:

• Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
• Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
• Central American Integration System (SICA)
• Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (CCASG)
• Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC)
• Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)
• South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
• Union State (Russia and Belarus)
• Eurasian Union (Russia,Kazakhstan,Kyrgyzstan and Belarus)

Academic analysis

The political position of the United Kingdom is often discussed;^[3][4] and former states like Serbia and Montenegro (2003–2006), the Soviet Union (1922–1991) and the United Arab Republic (1958–1961).

Lord Durham was widely regarded as one of the most important thinkers in the history of the British Empire's constitutional evolution. He articulated clearly the difference between a full legislative union and a federation. In his 1839 Report, in discussing the proposed union of Upper and Lower Canada, he says:

Two kinds of union have been proposed – federal and legislative. By the first, the separate legislature of each province would be preserved in its present form and retain almost all its present attributes of internal legislation, the federal legislature exercising no power save in those matters which may have been expressly ceded to it by the constituent provinces. A legislative union would imply a complete incorporation of the provinces included in it under one legislature, exercising universal and sole legislative authority over all of them in exactly the same manner as the Parliament legislates alone for the whole of the British Isles.^[5]

References

See also

• Union (disambiguation)
• Constituent countries
• Confederation
• Federation
• Real union
• List of proposed state mergers